James Joyce's "Ulysses" is the record of a single day in the life of Leopold Bloom. The day, June 16, 1904, is significant to Joyce because it was the day when he first met Nora Barnacle (who was to become his wife). She was a chambermaid at Finn's Hotel, Dublin, and he took her for a walk on that day.
Before "Ulysses," Joyce had already created "Dubliners," a collection of short stories, and "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". Both of these works become a part of his first major novel. While many of the character from his earlier works reappear in "Ulysses," Joyce based his June 16th epic on Homer's "Odyssey. "The various incidents of the book are divided into episodes that coincide with Homer's epic. And each episode is also unique in the style and technique, which Joyce employed.
In the scheme of the novel, Leopold "Poldy" Bloom, the Jewish advertisement canvasser, represents Ulysses; Stephen "Kinch" Dedalus, who is the hero from "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," represents Telemachus; Molly Bloom (Marion Tweed), who is the wife of Leopold Bloom and a singer, represents Penelope. Of course, all of these representations are undermined with the further developments in the book ...
For instance, Molly is not a faithful Penelope (she's having an affair with Blazes Boylan, which Bloom thinks about during the day). Bloom's great voyage is around Dublin—not across the ocean. And Stephen Dedalus is dealing with the recent death of his mother. (Memory invades Stephen's thoughts, and "In a dream, silently, she had come to him, her wasted body within its loose graveclothes giving off an odour of wax and rosewood, her breath, bent over him with mute secret words, a faint odour of wetted ashes.")
But then, this is a modern classic. While Homer's epic informed the text, Joyce took this and other pieces of myth and legend to create his own tale—complete with sexual innuendo, masturbation, and various other bits of description about physical and sensual pleasures. It's the story of a modern man, Leopold Bloom, and his relationship with time and memory. And, it's not just his own ... The cultural and political memory of Irish myth and Jewish heritage haunts him in his pilgrimage through the city.
Past tragedies inform the text ... Bloom had a son, Rudy, who died. You read: "She knew from the first poor little Rudy wouldn't live ... She knew at once. He would be eleven now if he had lived." With Rudy dead, his hope is gone. You read: Something to hand on. If little Rudy had lived. See him grow up. Hear his voice in the house. Walking beside Molly in an Eton suit. My son. Me in his eyes. Strange feeling that would be. From me. Just a chance. Tied in with Rudy's death is also Molly's infidelity. Would she have ever committed adult ery if her son had survived? Was she forced by Bloom's inattention to seek companionship elsewhere?
And there's something more about Bloom ... "He's a cultured allroundman, Bloom is, he said seriously. He's not one of your common or garden ... you know ... There's a touch of the artist about old Bloom." And, in Molly's chapter ("Penelope"), we learn that he's "a madman nobody understands his cracked ideas but me."
In the end, we are drawn into the saga of Leopold Bloom, with his surrogate son and his unfaithful wife. We see the "local colour," as Joyce works in all he knows or could hope to imagine. He has made us "accomplices" in the experience of a modern man.
Before "Ulysses," Joyce had already created "Dubliners," a collection of short stories, and "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". Both of these works become a part of his first major novel. While many of the character from his earlier works reappear in "Ulysses," Joyce based his June 16th epic on Homer's "Odyssey. "The various incidents of the book are divided into episodes that coincide with Homer's epic. And each episode is also unique in the style and technique, which Joyce employed.
In the scheme of the novel, Leopold "Poldy" Bloom, the Jewish advertisement canvasser, represents Ulysses; Stephen "Kinch" Dedalus, who is the hero from "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," represents Telemachus; Molly Bloom (Marion Tweed), who is the wife of Leopold Bloom and a singer, represents Penelope. Of course, all of these representations are undermined with the further developments in the book ...
For instance, Molly is not a faithful Penelope (she's having an affair with Blazes Boylan, which Bloom thinks about during the day). Bloom's great voyage is around Dublin—not across the ocean. And Stephen Dedalus is dealing with the recent death of his mother. (Memory invades Stephen's thoughts, and "In a dream, silently, she had come to him, her wasted body within its loose graveclothes giving off an odour of wax and rosewood, her breath, bent over him with mute secret words, a faint odour of wetted ashes.")
But then, this is a modern classic. While Homer's epic informed the text, Joyce took this and other pieces of myth and legend to create his own tale—complete with sexual innuendo, masturbation, and various other bits of description about physical and sensual pleasures. It's the story of a modern man, Leopold Bloom, and his relationship with time and memory. And, it's not just his own ... The cultural and political memory of Irish myth and Jewish heritage haunts him in his pilgrimage through the city.
Past tragedies inform the text ... Bloom had a son, Rudy, who died. You read: "She knew from the first poor little Rudy wouldn't live ... She knew at once. He would be eleven now if he had lived." With Rudy dead, his hope is gone. You read:
Something to hand on. If little Rudy had lived. See him grow up. Hear his voice in the house. Walking beside Molly in an Eton suit. My son. Me in his eyes. Strange feeling that would be. From me. Just a chance.
Tied in with Rudy's death is also Molly's infidelity. Would she have ever committed adult ery if her son had survived? Was she forced by Bloom's inattention to seek companionship elsewhere?
And there's something more about Bloom ... "He's a cultured allroundman, Bloom is, he said seriously. He's not one of your common or garden ... you know ... There's a touch of the artist about old Bloom." And, in Molly's chapter ("Penelope"), we learn that he's "a madman nobody understands his cracked ideas but me."
In the end, we are drawn into the saga of Leopold Bloom, with his surrogate son and his unfaithful wife. We see the "local colour," as Joyce works in all he knows or could hope to imagine. He has made us "accomplices" in the experience of a modern man.